


In the Heat of the Moment

by anticute



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: F/M, anticute's muse is landlocked in im1-im3 timeline and refuses to go past phase 1 of mcu., reposting onto ao3 from ffn is a pain frens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:01:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24972772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anticute/pseuds/anticute
Summary: PostIM1. Conversation follows as Tony thinks it is too hot in the conference room and naturally, thinks Pepper's hot.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	In the Heat of the Moment

**Author's Note:**

> i'm in the process of reposting fics from ffn because it's...just a thing i've been meaning to do for years. i'm starting with antique anticute works that don't require me to do much/that i'm not inclined to revisit and revise. the woes of being a perfectionist.
> 
> i decided to go with this one to start off with, since the weather is warming up! well. except for the fact that it rained rather abruptly this morning.

"It's hot in here."

"Is it now?" Pepper replies noncommittally, shifting her attention simultaneously to shuffling through papers and her laptop screen.

Tony leans back in his chair, and watches for a moment a woman chat up a colleague across the room, while tugging her thin scarf off.

"Tony... Did you tell JARVIS to lie to me? You didn't even glance through these reports - I can tell."

"Not lie. Just...convince you I already did. Look, Potts, most people in here have already taken off layers. Scarves. And you," he says accusatorially, "you still have your blazer on. How are you not burning in that?"

"Don't be obscene. Jackets and blazers constitute as individual layers."

"Just take it off."

"Just skim them," she counters, "I'd like you to have a mild understanding when these topics come up during the meeting."

"Have faith, Potts. I know what to do," he grins at her.

Unfortunately, she does have faith in him because Tony can work most situations to his advantage. It's just _how_ he will work today's meeting to that advantage that worries her.

She resumes her typing, while he drums his fingers against the table and moves to look at her, swivels his chair and all, particularly attentive to the lapel and buttons of her blazer.

"How about if I tackled you down and helped you out with that blazer," he notes her side glare, but continues, "I'm only concerned about you getting heatstroke, Pepper."

"That would be sexual harassment," she says, without looking away from the screen, "not to mention definitively traumatic."

"It would be a good sort of trauma, Potts."

"Of course it would. And do you need help with that? Did I make it too tight?"

Tony blinks, pausing his fingers at the knot of his tie for a moment before resuming his loosening of it, "Nope. You did it just fine. It's this room. Can't breathe. I hate the winter. The heater's on. And all these people are making it worse. How is it possible that this is our largest conference room?"

"I'll be sure to look at the blueprints in my endless free time, and see if we can't arrange for a new conference room. Which you will not be using, most likely. But anything for you, Mr. Stark."

"Yes. Thank you, Ms. Potts, for accommodating me. But no, really - aren't you hot, even a little?"

"Well, you seem rather insistent on reminding me daily, hourly even, of how attractive I am that-"

"What if I make one of those important CEO-y decisions, and turn up the heater? That's my name on the building, you know. And it has to be warm enough by then, for you."

"Your most recent decisions as CEO are enough for this fiscal year, Tony, and then some."

He beams proudly at that.

Pepper collects, taps a few papers against the surface of the conference, aligning them before stapling them together. She then slides the paperwork in front of Tony, "Read. No JARVIS to cover for you now."

He frowns, but complies, and with a slight shift forward in his chair, nudges the paperwork closer to him so he can grasp it. He leans back again and starts reading. Pepper notes that along with turning each crisp page loudly, he's folding back the pages so as to make a deep crease in the corner, with particular deliberate purpose and almost petulantly so, as if to prove to her he's absolutely reading. She's amused.

An intern catches her attention from the corner of her eyes.

"Ms. Sterling," Pepper greets warmly, "good morning. How is your internship going so far?"

"A-ah, it's...it's an...an amazing opportunity. Thank you,," the young intern is parts shy and other parts confidence, as she figures out how she fits in this real world. She's also got this hunched shoulder thing that tall people do. Pepper recognizes it all too easily.

Sterling gives a wayward, nervous look at Tony, as she gingerly places down a water bottle, "G-good morning, Mr. Stark."

"Not really," Tony replies absently as he turns another page, "Could be better if you brought me coffee. Ms. Potts is mean and won't let me have any."

"Coffee makes 'headaches'," Pepper says pointedly, "worse." 

She smiles at the intern encouragingly, as she steps away to deliver water bottles to the other occupants of the room.

"I have read and internalized," Tony announces dramatically and wearily, leaning back in his chair as he tosses the papers back onto the table. Pepper catches the edge of it with her pen before it slips off the table. She trusts that he has indeed read it all, because Tony is a speed reader and it drives her nuts why he doesn't just read the things she gives him, if it doesn't take that long to read them.

"Now, just take your blazer off and I won't have to get out of this chair to go get that heater fixed," as always, he bounces back to their previous topic with ease, "also, you know about my ankle. S'posed to stay off that ankle as much as possible."

Pepper snorts, "And yet you went out drinking last night with Rhodey."

He shrugs.

"I understand how bored you are," she looks over her other papers, "But, your meeting - the one you called for - will begin soon-"

"Then I'm going to be even _more_ bored," he whines. Then he gives her an accusatory look: "And it's only 'my' meeting because you told me we needed to have one. I said no, and you _defied_ me, Pepper. That's disobeying your employer. Your superior-"

"You're not my superior anything," Pepper retorts.

He's pulling out the "Mr. Stark, Employer" card. Which indicates how bored he really is. It's a given he doesn't see himself as her boss.

"-but I'm willing to let that alone and tolerate such insolent behavior. Because. You're my PA - whatever and anything I require, right? I, then, require to see the skin of your arms. Get to it, Ms. Potts."

"Enough of that. Mr. Lee's motioning at you."

Tony blinks and looks away from Pepper, to see Andrew Lee entering the room with his team.

"Andy," he waves to said employee, and then gives a nod when Andy makes a silent motion with his arms, "yeah, golf. This Saturday. Wait, Saturday? Pepper."

"Friday," Pepper corrects smoothly, "10 AM. And tennis, Tony. You really need to keep the drinking to a minimum the night before a meeting. It disorients you. His hand was clearly moving as if a racquet. Not a golf club."

"And?"

"And he's a candidate for CFO. A very good one, at that. That's why you're playing tennis with him. As well as with another candidate, Karen Pike."

"I don't like him. He does that...thing with his face too much."

"It's called a smile. He was _smiling_ at us. Incidentally, I also smiled back at him. It's polite and courteous. You could have done the same and said good morning to Ms. Sterling, you know. You were a bit snippy."

"Last time I said that to an intern, well - I don't want to repeat that fiasco. _Hell_ , Potts. Smile at Andy, and the cute intern, and I can't even get a glimpse of your delicious arms?"

"Again with the arms," she deadpans, "you have always been your own type of voyeur... But arms? Really?"

"I resent the term 'voyeur' - I _appreciate,"_ Tony sniffs but then grins at her, "but, just look at your arms."

"I live with them, Tony. I eat, type, arrange meetings for you such as today's," she will remind him of his surroundings as much as possible before he actually has to talk to the entirety of the room, lest he forget where he is, why he's here, and up and leave out of whim, "sleep, and do other things with them."

"Other. Things?"

"No."

"What if I took this water here and...it spilled toward your direction? Accidentally, of course."

"Accidentally, of course," she nods indulgently, "However, even you wouldn't do that. Embarrass me, in front of so many people, and so near to the start of the meeting. But," she hastily adds in before he interrupts with another inane scheme, "in any case, I find no need and will not be removing the blazer."

"...'Remove?' 'Remove' is very, very close to the word, 'strip.'"

She sighs, "Of course it is."

"How very unprofessional of you," he mockingly says as he pulls on his tie even more, straightens his back, prepares himself for said meeting, "But leaves much to the imagination."

"Tony-"

"You're a very attractive woman, Ms. Potts. You likely know this already, and I certainly do. So, you should be more careful with your feminine wiles. It's a good thing that as your employer, your superior, that I'm not a lesser man."

Pepper would sigh, but really - it was her fault for leaving such an opening.


End file.
